HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: Wah Chang Facility, Albany, Oregon

 

HHS Designation of Additional Members of the 

Special Exposure Cohort 

under the 

Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 

Designating a Class of Employees from 

Wah Chang Facility 

Albany, Oregon
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Wah Chang Facility, Albany, Oregon

Page 2

I. Designation 

I, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, designate the class 

of employees defined in Section II of this report for addition to the Special Exposure 

Cohort (SEC), as authorized under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 

Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA), 42 U.S.C. § 7384q.

_____April 29, 2011____ ___[Signature on file]___________

Date Kathleen Sebelius

II. Employee Class Definition

All Atomic Weapons Employer employees who worked in any building at the Wah 

Chang facility in Albany, Oregon, for the operational period from January 1, 1971

through December 31, 1972, for a number of work days aggregating at least 250 

work days, occurring either solely under this employment or in combination with 

work days within the parameters established for one or more other classes of 

employees included in the Special Exposure Cohort.

III. Designation Criteria and Recommendations

Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384q, for the class defined in Section II of this report, the 

Secretary has determined, and the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health 

(Board) has recommended, that

(1) it is not feasible to estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation dose that the 

class received; and

(2) there is a reasonable likelihood that such radiation dose may have 

endangered the health of members of the class.

The SEC final rule states in 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(1) that it is feasible in two situations 

to estimate the radiation dose that the class received with sufficient accuracy. First, 

the rule states that radiation doses may be estimated with sufficient accuracy if 

NIOSH has established that it has access to sufficient information to estimate the 

maximum radiation dose for every type of cancer for which radiation doses are 

reconstructed that could have been incurred under plausible circumstances by any 

member of the class. Alternatively, radiation doses may be estimated with sufficient 

accuracy if NIOSH has established that it has access to sufficient information to 

estimate the radiation doses of members of the class more precisely than a 

maximum dose estimate.

The Board, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384q, advised the Secretary to designate the 

class as an addition to the SEC in a letter received by the Secretary on March 30, 

2011. 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Wah Chang Facility, Albany, Oregon

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IV. Designation Findings

Feasibility of Estimating Radiation Doses with Sufficient Accuracy

The Secretary established the feasibility determination for the class of employees 

covered by this report based upon the findings summarized below.

• NIOSH determined that members of this class may have received internal and 

external radiation exposures from uranium dusts and fumes associated with the 

electron beam furnace uranium-melting operations, uranium and thorium 

byproduct dust or fumes resulting from zirconium extraction activities performed 

at the facility, and thorium dioxide dust associated with furnace insulation. 

 

• NIOSH has not located sufficient data, including quantities, process, or source 

term information to support assessing internal or external exposures to thorium. 

Lacking personnel monitoring data for these workers and detailed information on 

the materials being handled, NIOSH cannot assess the internal or external 

thorium doses to personnel working during the operational period from January 

1, 1971 through December 31, 1972.

• NIOSH has identified sufficient information and data to support bounding internal 

and external doses for the entire residual radioactivity period from January 1, 

1973 through October 31, 2009. 

• NIOSH lacks sufficient information, which includes specific biological monitoring 

data, sufficient air monitoring information, sufficient process and radiological 

source information, and surrogate data from similar operations at other sites that 

would allow it to estimate the potential internal or external radiological exposures 

to thorium for Wah Chang workers during the operational period from January 1, 

1971 through December 31, 1972. Consequently, NIOSH finds that it is not 

feasible to estimate with sufficient accuracy the total internal and external dose 

for workers at the Wah Chang facility during the operational period from January 

1, 1971 through December 31, 1972. 

• Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(1), NIOSH determined that there is insufficient 

information to either: (1) estimate the maximum radiation dose, for every type of 

cancer for which radiation doses are reconstructed, that could have been 

incurred under plausible circumstances by any member of the class; or (2) 

estimate the radiation doses of members of the class more precisely than a 

maximum dose estimate.

• Although NIOSH found that it is not possible to completely reconstruct radiation 

doses for employees who worked at the Wah Chang facility during the period 

from January 1, 1971 through December 31, 1972, NIOSH intends to use any 

reliable internal and external monitoring data that may be available for an 

individual claim (and that can be interpreted using existing NIOSH dose 

reconstruction processes or procedures). Dose reconstructions for individuals 

employed at Wah Chang during the period from January 1, 1971 through 

December 31, 1972, but who do not qualify for inclusion in the SEC, may be 

performed using these data as appropriate.
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Wah Chang Facility, Albany, Oregon

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• NIOSH believes it is possible to reconstruct the medical X-ray dose for the 

covered operational period of January 1, 1971 through December 31, 1972 by 

using claimant-favorable assumptions in the Technical Information Bulletin, Dose 

Reconstruction from Occupationally Related Diagnostic X-Ray Procedures

(ORAUT-OTIB-0006). 

• The Board concurred with the NIOSH evaluation and recommended the 

proposed class for addition to the SEC.

 Health Endangerment

The Secretary established the health endangerment determination for the class of 

employees covered by this report based upon the findings summarized below.

(1) Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3), NIOSH established that there is a 

reasonable likelihood that such radiation doses may have endangered the 

health of members of the class. Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3)(ii), NIOSH 

specified a minimum duration of employment to satisfy this health 

endangerment criterion as “having been employed for a number of work days 

aggregating at least 250 work days within the parameters established for this 

class or in combination with work days within the parameters (excluding 

aggregate work day requirements) established for one or more other classes 

of employees in the Cohort.”

(2) NIOSH did not identify any evidence from the petitioners or from other 

resources that would establish that the class was exposed to radiation during 

a discrete incident likely to have involved exceptionally high-level exposures, 

such as a nuclear criticality incident, as defined under 42 C.F.R. § 

83.13(c)(3)(i). 

(3) The Board concurred with NIOSH’s finding that the health of the class may 

have been endangered and defined the class according to the 250-work day 

requirement specified under 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3)(ii). 

V. Effect and Effective Date of Designation

The Secretary submits this report on the designation of one additional class to the 

SEC for review by Congress, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 7384l(14)(C)(ii) and 

7384q(c)(2)(A), as amended by the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense 

Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-375 (codified as amended in 

scattered sections of 42 U.S.C.). Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384l(14)(C)(ii), as 

amended by the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 

Year 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-375 (codified as amended in scattered sections of 42 

U.S.C.), the designation in this report will become effective 30 days after the date of 

this report’s submission to Congress “unless Congress otherwise provides.”
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Wah Chang Facility, Albany, Oregon

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VI. Administrative Review of Designation

The health endangerment determination of the designation provided in this report 

may be subject to an administrative review within HHS, pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 

83.18(a). On the basis of such a review, if the Secretary decides to expand the class 

of employees covered by this designation, the Secretary would transmit a 

supplementary report to Congress providing the expanded employee class definition 

and the criteria and findings on which the decision was based.